CSMCDB - Chapter 189
Chapter 189
The night gradually receded, the starry sky vanished, and the horizon began to whiten.
The sun slowly shifted its position until it was directly overhead, and only then was there any stirring in the room.
"Mmm… I think it's noon…" Wen Yuncheng rubbed her eyes, her voice still a bit hoarse. She turned on her side and hugged Lin Jinyu. "Jinyu?"
"Let me get you a glass of water." Lin Jinyu kissed Wen Yuncheng's cheek and pushed herself up. She stepped barefoot onto the floor and picked up the bathrobe that had been carelessly tossed aside the previous night. "We should get ready." It was time to prepare for the matter of the secret realms.
"Mmm~" Wen Yuncheng let out an ambiguous hum, her eyes lingering on Lin Jinyu's body. When the Little Ice Mountain noticed her gaze, she wasn't as shy as she used to be. She simply picked up the storage ring from the table, put it on, and draped her outer robes over herself. Wen Yuncheng averted her gaze with a hint of regret, looking at her own storage rings on the table. "My storage rings~ Aren't you going to dress me?"
Lin Jinyu tilted her head, walked over, and swept Wen Yuncheng up into her arms before heading toward the bathroom.
The First Princess hadn't rushed them, so they were in no hurry. It was only after they had packed, changed, and finished lunch that they made their way to the Imperial Palace.
"It's rare for you two to arrive so late." Wei Qingyu wasn't complaining, just found it a little odd. After all… usually, Wen Yuncheng would have rushed over at dawn the next day, urging them to open the secret realms.
"Ah, that… we woke up a little late today." Wen Yuncheng smiled, her face slightly red. She was holding hands with Lin Jinyu, and as she spoke, she couldn't help but stroke the back of Lin Jinyu's hand with her thumb. The Little Ice Mountain glanced at her, the tips of her ears turning red, but she said nothing.
Just as she thought, Lin Jinyu had become even more doting after their intimacy.
The First Princess watched their subtle interactions and slightly regretted her casual comment. For now… she could only pick up her teacup and take a sip to mitigate the cloyingly sweet aura radiating from the pair. Honestly… were these two experiencing that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" was better than a honeymoon? Why was it that every time she saw them, they were more sickeningly sweet than the last? Perhaps she should find the time to keep a pretty boy for herself and see what love tasted like.
No matter how many thoughts spun in the First Princess's mind, none of it showed on her face. She maintained an elegant and reserved smile. "Lin Jinyu needs to enter a place with abundant Star Power to cultivate, and we are to notify you immediately if there's any major movement from the Huanling side, correct?"
"Yes."
The First Princess looked at Wen Yuncheng again and said, "And you're sightseeing in the secret realms again? If we start now, you can enter three today. Tomorrow, you can go to another six, and then all the secret realms controlled by the Empire will have been opened to you."
"Okay, you're truly a great person!" Wen Yuncheng was extremely satisfied and lavishly praised the First Princess with her heartfelt thoughts. "It's such a pleasure working for you!"
Wei Qingyu: Acceptable… but really, there's no need.
The First Princess silently waved her hand and summoned her personal shadow guard. "Zero, take them… to the secret realms."
A human figure gradually materialized from the shadows in the corner. Zero stepped out and bowed to Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu. "This way, please."
Wen Yuncheng had always been fascinated by Zero's ability. Merging into shadows and concealing one's aura? Although it was the effect of a cultivation technique, she was probably the only one on the Starry Sky Continent who could cultivate it to such a level. Tsk, and in the end, she was caught by the First Princess and kept in the Imperial Palace as a personal shadow guard. What a waste of talent.
With skills like that, she could even join her on assassination missions.
Of course, those were just thoughts. Wen Yuncheng meekly held Lin Jinyu's hand and followed Zero. Their first stop was the cultivation secret realm that Lin Jinyu needed. Wen Yuncheng planned to stay with her for a while, and once Lin Jinyu entered a state of meditation, she could start her tour of the other secret realms.
Huanling Continent.
"Damn it, the peace faction is recruiting and spreading their propaganda again." The Phantom Saint from the pro-war faction slammed his fist on the table. "The planar passage still can't allow a Saint to pass through? What the hell is the research institute doing? We give them so many resources every year; shouldn't reinforcing the passage be simple?!"
"Calm down, calm down. If those old scholars heard you say that, they'd probably be angry enough to fight you to the death." Another half-Saint smiled and soothed him. "Next time the passage opens, I'll go over and take a look. But according to the feedback, the Starry Sky Continent is very strange. There's a little girl over there called… called Wen something, and the abilities she uses are completely different from their continent's. It's said to be called a Star Power Mutation over there."
"Bullshit! I say they're just making excuses for their incompetence! That Wen-something—first they said she was a King, then a month later a Venerate. Now they're telling me she's unkillable? What the bleep were they doing before?" The Phantom Saint was beyond furious. He was a dyed-in-the-wool warmonger who wished he could fly to the Starry Sky Continent and conquer it himself that very instant. "When the hell is this passage going to let me through? Is the research institute even doing any work at all?"
"And another thing, the truce was suspended just like that, which completely destroyed our war faction's momentum! Now those people from the peace faction are all walking around with their noses in the air. I'll bleep—"
"Alright, alright, calm down. They'll work on the passage. It's just that their invasion isn't going well. Dragon Island on the Starry Sky side has reportedly suffered heavy losses and needs to revise the terms of our cooperation."
"Those insects dare to make such outrageous demands?!"
"Their losses were indeed severe. Many at the Emperor and Venerate levels have died."
The Phantom Saint waved his hand impatiently. "It's because they're too weak to win, yet they have the gall to complain. The Fu organization is the same—can't even secure any powerful allies."
"…The Fu organization has also suffered considerable losses."
"Just shut the hell up!" The Phantom Saint was utterly speechless, his head throbbing with anger. "Has there been any guidance from the Illusion God recently?"
"…The god of the Starry Sky Plane, who has yet to fully mature, is now advancing at a divine speed. The Illusion God has warned us to be vigilant."
"A bunch of useless fools!" The Phantom Saint seethed. He collapsed into his armchair, taking a long moment to catch his breath. "Is the third phase ready?"
"Most of the demonic beast clans have agreed to join the battle, and the various resources have been mostly prepared."
"Give me the list of clans that refused to fight. I'll pay them a visit."
"Yes!"
During the temporary truce, the Empire was constantly probing Dragon Island's deployments. A dozen or so Star Emperors teamed up to continuously harass and gather information around Dragon Island. They also conscripted cultivators at the Star Spirit level and above into the Dragon Tiger Guard, while those below the Star Spirit level were organized into local self-defense forces in every town, each equipped with a distress signal.
The empty cities, long since evacuated, were hastily converted by the Empire into military strongholds and barracks. The defenses of all towns were continuously reinforced in preparation for the coming battles.
The alliance of sects took advantage of this time to take a short break. They gathered some resources and opened their secret realms for two days, letting Wen Yuncheng tour all of them. After seeing her off, they used her as an example to admonish their disciples. After all, at a time like this… secluded cultivation was not an option. Only the younger generation with low strength, who couldn't play much of a role for the time being, had to seize every moment to cultivate diligently. The high-level cultivators like sect masters and elders naturally had to be on the front lines to provide a safe environment for the younger generation of their sects to grow.
Business at the various auction houses was sluggish. They hadn't been holding many auctions recently. Instead, they were cooperating with the Empire, sects, and some families to continuously collect various resources for centralized sale.
The Star Auction House, for instance, had entered into a long-term partnership with the Qiu family.
As for Wen Yuncheng, she spent a week sightseeing and "checking in" at a total of 21 secret realms belonging to the Empire and the sects. The Empire's were all large, while the sects' varied in size, but the experience points were all about the same, so Wen Yuncheng wasn't picky. When she emerged, the Empire sent over a Heaven-rank longsword and a small Heaven-rank lamp. The longsword was for Lin Jinyu, and the small orange lamp was a Heaven-rank defensive Spirit Treasure.
The one who delivered the items was an old acquaintance, Chu Han. Protector Chu had just come by to see how Wen Yuncheng's cultivation in the secret realms was going, but the result almost scared him to death—
It had only been a week, so how was Wen Yuncheng already at the third layer of Star Venerate? Wasn't she just at the second layer not long ago?! Was she trying to make it impossible for others to live? This junior he thought highly of was about to reach the Emperor level already?
Even a steady and calm person like Chu Han couldn't help but be dazed. He still remembered the first time he noticed Wen Yuncheng was during the Youth Tournament. At that time, she wasn't as prominent as she was now. How… it had only been a few years! Yes, after the Huanling invasion, their cultivation had become a bit easier. But even so, Wen Yuncheng's advancement speed was simply incredible.
After delivering the items, Chu Han left, slightly dazed, without even asking after Wen Yuncheng.
Host: Wen Yuncheng
Race: Human
Age: 23
Class: Mechanical Overlord
Level: 77
Experience: 45505/128000
Points: 32328
In response, Wen Yuncheng just smiled discreetly, playing the part of a well-behaved junior to get by. After all, if she had to explain… she wouldn't know how.
The secret realms had given her a free level, not to mention her points had broken the thirty-thousand mark! Wen Yuncheng was very satisfied with this. After seeing Protector Chu off, she went to retrieve the mechs from her three Apostles and install cores or energy aggregation devices in them. This massive point expenditure immediately deflated her once-bulging purse. Of course, she was more than happy with this kind of spending; she wished her mechs would completely drain her dry.
After she finished with these things, she returned to the Imperial Capital. Lin Jinyu hadn't come out of seclusion yet, so she went to see her teacher and let her see for herself this Star Venerate 3rd Layer disciple. However, Teacher Yan was surprisingly not at the Star Auction House that day. Wen Yuncheng went to the academy, looked around, and still couldn't find her. Then she ran into Headmaster Tao.
"Here to find your Teacher Yan?"
"Yes, I'm a Star Venerate 3rd Layer now. I wanted to share the good news with my teacher."
Tao Jingyun almost couldn't maintain the elegant smile exclusive to a headmaster. The corners of her mouth twitched stiffly. "Yan Ling and Qiu Fei left the academy to go training together. I heard they wanted to slay a dragon. They haven't returned yet. If you want to share the news, you should probably call them."
Hearing this, Wen Yuncheng sighed with deep regret. Yan Ling can't beat me now. What a perfect opportunity, and Teacher Yan isn't even here.
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